


it's not what it looks like

by tessav



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 02:46:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13308789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tessav/pseuds/tessav
Summary: “Wait!” Molly said, gasping. “Sorry guys, I didn’t realize I was interrupting,”“Oh, no, this isn’t—” Nico stuttered“We aren’t, like, on a d—” said Karolina at the same time.Molly shook her head and spoke over them. “No, it’s okay guys, I’ll leave you two. I have to meet with my group anyways,” she said with a smile, her eyes twinkling. “I think you’re really cute together, by the way,” she said over her shoulder as she walked away. “And don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone!”Karolina watched as Molly walked over to a group of students and sat down, pulling a textbook from her backpack. “That was pretty weird, right?” she said. She glanced back up to see Nico giving her a confusing look.“Yeah, weird.”or, four times the gang thought that karolina and nico were a 'thing', and the one time they were right.





	it's not what it looks like

**Author's Note:**

> post 1x06 but pre 1x09

one

“One medium dark roast coffee with cream and one medium vanilla chai, extra sweet,” Karolina said as she walked up to the table that Nico was sitting at. Nico closed the book she was reading and smiled at Karolina as she approached—which made Karolina’s heart flutter—and she reached for the coffee that Karolina held out for her. Karolina set her tea down in front of the open seat and sat down. “What are you working on?” she asked, nodding her head at the book in front of Nico.

“Just catching up on some reading for AP English. Haven’t had much time for homework recently,” Nico said.

Karolina nodded in understanding. “I totally agree. I haven’t gone to my math class since all of this started. Hard to focus on polynomials when…” she trailed off, remembering that they weren’t the only ones in the coffee shop. She shook her head and asked, “What book is it? I took that class last year; maybe I can help you?”

Nico flipped the book over to show the cover. “ _The Scarlet Letter_. You read it?”

The blonde laughed awkwardly. “Well, I was supposed to read that one, but it was just so boring... I never finished it.”

Nico laughed. “Karolina, are you serious? Aren’t you like, a straight-A student or something? How did you just not read the book?”

Karolina ducked her head in embarrassment. “The teacher didn’t know that I didn’t read it! I read the Sparknotes page for it and talked a lot about misogyny and how unfair it was, and people just assumed I knew what I was talking about.” She looked up and saw Nico barely containing a smile. “Anyways, I feel like you would like the book. Aren’t there witches in it?”

Again, Nico laughed, and Karolina decided that Nico’s laughter was one of the best sounds she had ever heard. “No, there’s no witches in this book. I guess you really didn’t read it, did you?” When Karolina blushed and shook her head, Nico continued. “You’re probably thinking about _The Crucible_. That one’s about witches.”

“I didn’t read that one either,” Karolina admitted sheepishly.

Nico gasped comically. “Little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes reveals the truth! What would her parents think?”

“We’ve seen what they’ve done; I wouldn’t put it past them to kick me out,” Karolina said with a smirk. “And honestly that doesn’t sound like the worst thing in the world anymore”.

Nico stopped laughing. She flicked her eyes back and forth, scanning the scene, before leaning in and asking quietly, “Are we allowed to joke about this?”

“I’m… not sure,” Karolina said. “I mean, everybody copes in their own ways, right?”

 Nico nodded. She paused for a moment and then said, “Do you think our parents really are evil?”

Karolina paused. It had been something she’d spent a lot of time thinking of. “I don’t know. I want to think that there’s still some big explanation for this, and that we’ve all been misinterpreting what’s happened. But as time goes on,”

“It seems less and less likely,” Nico finishes for her.

Karolina nods. “I’m still holding out hope that they think they’re doing the right thing. Even if what they’re doing is wrong, maybe they think they’re helping. That makes it better.”

“Does it, though?” Nico asked. “What could possibly be so big that _killing kids_ is justified?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Karolina conceded. “It’s just, I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that our parents are evil.” Karolina took a deep breath before continuing. “And more than that. Everything I thought was true is a lie. For reasons that we still don’t understand, I light up like a rainbow every time I take my bracelet off. And I’m pretty sure my mom has something to do with it but _that doesn’t make sense_. And my dad—he’s trying his best, but it’s obvious that he doesn’t know what’s going on either and there’s nothing he can do to stop it but still he won’t let me help! I just feel so alone.”

Nico reached out and grabbed her hand. Karolina locked eyes with her. She held her breath as she gazed into Nico’s brown eyes, so deep that they seemed endless. “You’re not alone, Karolina. You have all of us.” Nico bit her lip. “You have me.”

Karolina nodded wordlessly.

“Hey, I didn’t know you guys were gonna be here!” said a familiar voice from the other side of the café. Karolina looked over to see Molly, smiling as she walked over to the pair.

“Hey, Molly!” Karolina said.

“What are you guys doing here?” the younger girl asked. Before either Karolina or Nico could respond, she continued. “It’s Tuesday, and I usually come here on Tuesdays to meet with my chemistry group to work on our homework, and I haven’t come in a week or two but this is the first time I’ve seen you guys here! What are you doing?” She glanced down and saw their hands, still intertwined. “Wait!” she said, gasping. “Sorry guys, I didn’t realize I was interrupting,”

“Oh, no, this isn’t—” Nico stuttered

“We aren’t, like, on a d—” said Karolina at the same time.

Molly shook her head and spoke over them. “No, it’s okay guys, I’ll leave you two. I have to meet with my group anyways,” she said with a smile, her eyes twinkling. “I think you’re really cute together, by the way,” she said over her shoulder as she walked away. “And don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone!”

Karolina watched as Molly walked over to a group of students and sat down, pulling a textbook from her backpack. “That was pretty weird, right?” she said. She glanced back up to see Nico giving her a confusing look.

“Yeah, weird.”

 

two

“I don’t know why I agreed to this,” Nico complained from where she was sitting on the counter.

Karolina smiled at her from where she was standing. “Come on. We’re gonna have fun, and we’re making cookies, so you don’t need to complain” The two were in Nico’s kitchen; Karolina had somehow managed to convince Nico to help her out with the baking. She looked up from the bowl she was mixing and her heart sped up as she saw that Nico was looking at her attentively. Karolina bit her lip and looked back down.

She scanned the ingredients that were lined up in front of her. Butter, eggs, baking soda, and a handful of other ingredients were there, but she was missing the most important part. “I just have to find the chocolate chips,” she said to herself, distracted. She turned away from Nico and opened some of the cabinets on the wall. “Where do you keep them? I can’t see them.”

Nico pushed herself off of her seat and walked over to the blonde girl “That’s the right spot. Here, let me help.” She walked up behind Karolina and reached upwards, leaning against Karolina’s back. Karolina cheeks burned as she felt Nico’s body against hers. Nico was the shorter of the two girls, and so it didn’t really make sense that she was standing behind Karolina, but Karolina’s brain was too frozen for her to question it. If Nico noticed anything off about her, she didn’t say anything. Instead, she reached past Karolina and pushed a few boxes away, revealing the chocolate chips. “Gotcha,” Nico said as she leaned forward and grabbed the bag. Her head was now next to Karolina’s, their cheeks almost brushing. Karolina felt her brain short circuit. She was frozen, and she waited for what felt like an eternity before Nico pulled away from her. Karolina let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding before turning around. Nico was already walking away, and she looked over her shoulder and smiled at Karolina as she set the bag of chocolate chips down next to the bowl Karolina was using.

“Thank you,” Karolina said breathlessly.

Nico nodded, grinning. “Okay, now that I’m up, how can I help?”

“Uh,” Karolina said, then shook her head to clear it. “Could you keep mixing the flour and the sugars? It’s all in the bowl already but I have to prepare the other stuff.”

“Mixing, got it,” Nico said. She grabbed the spatula that was resting next to bowl and began to mix.

Karolina watched her for a moment before pulling out another bowl. She was concentrating closely on adding the correct amount of butter when a cloud of flour blew into her face. “What?” she gasped. She looked over at Nico who was grinning, biting her bottom lip, with a hand suspiciously coated in flour held out in front of her face. Karolina let out a laugh and looked down at herself. Unsurprisingly, her entire sweater was now covered in flour. “How dare you?” she asked in mock outrage.

“What are you going to do, throw something back at me?” Nico teased. “You wouldn’t.”

Hearing the challenge, Karolina knew she had to, or Nico would never let her live it down. She quickly scanned the counter to see what she could use, and as she smirked and reached for the egg carton she heard Nico repeat, with slightly more fear, “You wouldn’t.” Karolina grinned and quickly turned at threw the egg at Nico. It hit her directly in the chest and the shell shattered, leaving a bright yellow stain on Nico’s otherwise black shirt.

Immediately, Nico grabbed a handful of sugar and threw it at Karolina. The blonde felt the sticky grains land in her hair and she knew that it was going to be a pain to wash out, but she would worry about that later. She grabbed the can of salt and flipped the lid open before shaking it towards Nico, watching the shorter girl squeal as she tried and failed to dodge the salt.

The two began to throw whatever was within reach. Nico flicked more flour towards Karolina while Karolina tried to splash Nico with the water that was sitting in the measuring cup. Both girls reached for the carton of eggs at the same time. Karolina tried to pull it out of Nico’s reach but Nico refused to let go of the cardboard. “Give it to me!” Nico demanded and Karolina was just about ready to give in when they were interrupted by a voice coming from the entry hall.

“Hey, Nico, do you have a minute?” came Alex’s voice. The two girls froze as their friend entered the kitchen and took in the scene. “Oh,” he said. He looked back in forth from Karolina, who all of the sudden felt extremely self-conscious, and Nico, who was looking like she was ready to hit someone if Alex tried to ask what was going on. “Oh!” he said. “I forgot—I forgot you said,” he stopped talking and pulled his gaze away from the girls, biting his lip. “Yeah, I’ll just head off. Nico, I have to ask you some things about the, uh, security system, but just text me or something when you’re free. Yeah. Bye,” he said, ducking his head awkwardly and backing out.

Once Alex was out of the room, Karolina took a step back from the mess they had made. She tried brushing some of the flour off of her sweater but only managed to get bits of egg on it.

“Sorry about that,” Nico said sheepishly, gesturing to Karolina’s top.

Karolina shook her head. “No, it’s fine, I think I got you pretty good.” Nico grinned and looked down at herself, also covered in food.

“Okay, well, in that case, sorry for ruining the cookies. I know you were looking forward to making them,” Nico said.

Karolina laughed softly. “We can always just buy cookies. I think I was mostly looking forward to spending time with you.”

Nico smiled back at her, and Karolina was struck by how carefree she looked. The shorter girl reached out her hand and grabbed Karolina’s, stroking her palm gently with her thumb. Karolina watched, heart racing, before pulling back and turning away from Nico. “Well, we should probably clean this mess up before your parents get home.”

 

three

Karolina’s phone buzzed, letting her know that she had a new notification. Immediately she grabbed her phone and turned it over, and she grinned as she saw who the snapchat was from. She unlocked her phone and tapped the notification, and a picture of Nico, holding a child’s drawing of a rainbow, grinning and giving her a peace sign. The words _‘Reminded me of you’_ were typed atop it.

“Who’s that?” asked Chase. Karolina looked up and smiled at him. “Nico?” he guessed.

They were in the school’s library. Both Chase and Karolina had study hall this period, and both had snuck out as soon as they were able to and met up at their usual spot. There they sat, in old arm chairs in the back of the library, doing the same homework that they would have been doing in class. But at least this way they were together, and able to spend some time with each other.

“Yeah, it’s from Nico,” Karolina said. “She’s at a doctor’s appointment today, and since she’s still 17, she’s in the pediatric ward,” she said, holding up the photo for Chase to see.

“Seems very Anti-Nico,” Chase said with a smile.

Karolina shook her head. “You’d be surprised. I know she seems really dark and angry all of the time, and a lot of the time she is, but sometimes she’s so bright and colorful and wonderful. The other day, we were making cookies and she just,” Karolina closed her eyes. She knew that she was gushing, but she really couldn’t help it. Nico brought something out in her that she hadn’t known about before, and she just wanted to share with the world how incredible her friend was.

“Listen, Karolina,” said Chase slowly. Karolina opened her eyes and looked at her friend. “I just want to apologize for the gala. For kissing you.”

“Why?” Karolina asked, genuinely confused. She hadn’t particularly enjoyed the kiss but it hadn’t been _bad._ She just didn’t see Chase like that. _At all_.

He laughed awkwardly. “In that moment, I was thinking about what I wanted. I assumed that you wanted the same thing, but I realize I was way off.” Karolina still looked at him, confused, and he continued. “Nico. You wanted Nico, and I didn’t realize that. But don’t worry, I know that you guys are dating now, and I think that’s really great.”

“Uh, no, we’re not dating,” Karolina said quickly.

“Okay, so not dating, but you’re still a thing,” said Chase.

Karolina bit the inside of her lip. “No, not that either. We’re not a thing. We’re really just friends. I don’t know why everybody keeps thinking—” she cuts herself off when Chase shoots her a look. “Sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I’m sorry for assuming about you two. But I was halfway there, right? You like her?” Chase asked.

Karolina sighed. “Yeah. I think so. I don’t really know what that means or why or anything but.” She takes a deep breath. “She makes my day better just by being in it. She’s so strong, and so smart, and her new magic thing is _so cool_ , and even if I do like her like that I’m totally okay with just being friends because she’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had.”

Chase smiled at his friend. “You really like her then, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I like her a lot.” Karolina looks at Chase. “I don’t know what this means. I mean, about me. I don’t know if I’m a lesbian, or if I’m bi or something. I don’t—I’ve never even said all of this out loud before.”

Chase leans out of his chair and wraps his arms around Karolina, hugging her tightly. “It’s okay,” he tells her as he pulls away. “You don’t have to know any of that. You’re you, and that’s all that matters. And if you do want to find a word for it, I’m here to help, and I’m sure Gert would be more than happy to offer assistance.”

“I think Gert knew I liked Nico even before I did,” Karolina said with a smile.

“She’s like that sometimes,” Chase agreed. “And for what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure Nico likes you back.” Karolina looked at him in shock. “I’m serious! There’s a reason I thought you guys were already together. You look at her like she’s the greatest thing in the world, yeah, but she looks at you like you _are_ her world. If it wasn’t so gross it would be pretty cute.”

Karolina considered that for a moment. Could Nico like her the way she liked Nico? Before this conversation, Karolina hadn’t dared to let herself imagine that that was a possibility. But if what Chase said was true… “She likes me?” Karolina asked.

“Most definitely.”

 

four

Seeing as the gang hadn’t made any progress in the case against their parents in a few days, they decided it was time to relax a bit, and Chase organized a group movie night. There had been some arguments about what movie to watch—Molly wanted to watch a comedy, Alex wanted to show them the original Star Wars trilogy, Gert wanted to watch Jurassic World (for obvious reasons), and Nico wanted to see a horror movie. Chase and Karolina both didn’t care what movie was chosen (though Chase decided to back up Gert’s choice and Karolina Nico’s), but eventually they all decided on The Breakfast Club.

“I can’t believe none of you guys have never seen this!” Alex said as they all settled down to watch.

“Whatever, we’re watching now, aren’t we?” Nico said.

Alex grinned at her and tossed her an unopened bag of popcorn. “Nico’s got the right idea, guys, get ready for a movie that will blow your mind!”

Karolina grabbed the bag of popcorn out of Nico’s hands and opened it, popping a piece into her mouth. She handed the bag off to Molly as she allowed Nico to pull her towards the loveseat. “We’re sitting here,” the goth girl declared. Karolina felt her chest warm, and she smiled goofily as she sat down next to Nico. She didn’t miss the knowing glance between Chase and Alex, but she decided not to comment on it.

Nico and Karolina had taken the only loveseat in Chase’s TV room—the irony of the loveseat was not escaping Karolina—but the others had piled comfortably onto the curved couch that was next to it. Gert, Alex, and Molly all sat on the couch while Chase was seated on the ground, leaning back against Gert’s legs.

“I’m cold, I want a blanket,” Molly said, and Chase leaned forward to grab one from the blanket pile in the middle of the room.

“Do you guys want one too?” Chase asked, looking at Nico and Karolina. The girls looked at each other for a moment before Karolina nodded and Chase tosses a blanket towards them.

The movie began to play and the kids stopped chatting. Karolina busied herself with laying the blanket over her and Nico’s legs as the characters in the movie made their way to detention. Even though she hadn’t seen the movie before, she’d heard about it, and she was looking forward to watching it. And it didn’t hurt that Nico had just lifted her arm and put it around Karolina’s shoulders. Karolina tensed up slightly when she felt Nico’s arm behind her. The shorter girl leaned her head towards Karolina and murmured “Is this okay?”.

Karolina turned her head slightly to look at Nico and smiled. She whispered back, “Yeah, uh, it’s good. Great. Sorry, I was just surprised. It’s great I just hadn’t expected it—”

Nico gently bumped her head against Karolina’s. “Be quiet, dummy, or you’re gonna miss the movie.”

Karolina smiled as she turned her gaze back to the television. As the movie continued, she found that she was really enjoying it. All five characters were very relatable, and Karolina found herself especially drawn to Claire, the princess. The girl who everyone thought was perfect but was trying to find a way to rebel and express herself? It hit a little close to home.

The whole movie was incredible. She found herself agreeing with Alex—how had she never seen this before? And of course, there was Nico. While Bender was taunting the vice principal, Karolina slowly laid her head against Nico’s shoulder. When the kids were running through the hallways, Nico pressed a soft kiss into Karolina’s hair. While the kids were confessing their secrets to each other, Karolina grabbed Nico’s free hand with her own.

Her heart was beating fast and maybe it was the words Chase had told her yesterday or the way Nico had looked at her earlier or the kids in the movie being brave and honest with themselves because she ignored her racing heart and intertwined her fingers with Nico’s. Then, feeling even move emboldened, she swung her legs up onto the couch and rotated so her head was on Nico’s lap and her legs were tucked against her. She felt Nico’s hand pull away from hers and for a moment she thought that that was it, that she had gone too far, but then Nico began playing with Karolina’s hair and Karolina felt like she was about to melt. She allowed herself to relax and she closed her eyes, sinking back comfortably against the other girl.

Karolina hadn’t even realized that she had fallen asleep until she woke up to see the characters walking down the steps and away from the school. She had slept through the last third of the movie. She realized, though, that while she had been sleeping she and Nico had shifted. Nico was sitting with her back against the arm of the loveseat, and Karolina was sitting in between Nico’s legs. Her head was cradled against Nico’s chest, and she was kept stable by Nico’s bent knees on either side of her. The blanket that had covered them earlier had been discarded onto the floor next to the couch. It wasn’t the most comfortable position—the loveseat was proving too small for the two of them—but Karolina felt like she could stay there forever. Through half-opened eyes she watched as the characters made their separate ways and as the vice principal read the essay that had been written. She thought she heard Nico sniffling from behind her, but she wasn’t sure. Karolina didn’t move or say anything, choosing instead to savor the feeling of lying next to—well, on top of—Nico.

“Did anyone else notice that they were kind of a lot like us?” Gert asked once the movie concluded.

Alex laughed. “Really, Gert? I mean, one of the reasons the movie is considered like, the best of all time is because the characters are all so relatable,” he said.

“No, I’m serious! Like, I think they fit us all pretty well. Chase is obviously Andy, because he’s the jock. Karolina’s Claire because she’s the princess. I’m Allison, because as much as I try to deny it I’m probably the basket case of the group, Alex is Brian because he’s the closest thing to a nerd that we have here, and Nico’s Bender.” She cleared her throat. “Molly’s not in it because there’s only five of them but she’s there in spirit.”

“That’s okay, Gert!” Molly said cheerfully, while at the same time Nico protested, “Why am I the criminal?”

Still not moving, Karolina stayed silent. She was curious about that, too.

“Well, obviously you’re not really a criminal,” came Chase’s voice. “But other than that, you match pretty well. Intentionally outcasting yourself, having a dark, ‘edgy’ aesthetic—”

“And you hook up with Karolina’s character,” said Gert. After nobody said anything—Karolina assumed they were probably giving Gert a look—the purple-haired girl continued. “Come on, I can’t be the only one who’s noticed those guys! They’re practically spooning on the couch over there!”

“Gert…” came Molly’s voice hesitantly.

“All I’m saying, Nico, is that you guys don’t have to hide that you’re dating! You two are cute and we all knew it was coming.”

“Gert!” Chase said, more sternly than Molly.

“We’re not actually dating,” said Nico quietly.

“Are you sure?” questioned Gert without pausing.

Karolina felt Nico shift awkwardly beneath her. “Uh, yeah. Pretty sure.”

“But you want to date her, right?” asked Alex. Hearing his voice surprised Karolina. She had figured that he had picked up on what was going on when he saw their baking fiasco, but he had been able to put the pieces together better than Karolina had expected.

Nico ran her fingers down Karolina’s arms, gently stroking. “Yeah,” she said. “I do want that.”

 _Holy shit_ , Karolina thought to herself. _Chase was right, she does like me!_

“But, guys,” Nico continued. “Please stop bringing it up around her; it freaks her out. I think it scares her.”

 _No, it doesn’t scare me! Everything else in my life is scary except for this! You’re the one thing that makes me feel safe!_ Karolina thought. She wanted nothing more than to turn around and tell Nico that. Tell her how she felt and then maybe kiss her, for good measure. But their friends were in the room and it wasn’t the time, so she kept pretending to be asleep until Nico’s hands gently woke her up and they got ready to head home.

 

\+ one

Karolina squinted her eyes, staring intently at the math notes laying in front of her. She was lying on her bed, doing her best to study for her upcoming math test. Her efforts were proving futile, however, as she kept getting distracted from the task at hand. She had muted her phone and put on a CD of classical music—the only thing she could listen to while studying—but the primary source of distraction was proving to be Nico, who was lying next to her reading her book.

Karolina sighed. “Stop distracting me!” she said to Nico.

Nico laughed and pushed Karolina jokingly. “I’m literally just lying here and reading. If that’s distracting you then clearly you just want an excuse to stop doing you work.”

“Or, maybe I was looking for an excuse to look at you?” Karolina said. Was this flirting? Karolina wasn’t sure, but she saw Nico’s cheeks color as Nico smiled, so that was something.

“Maybe I can help you with your homework. What’s the problem?” Nico asked. She propped herself up on her elbows and turned to look at the blonde girl.

Karolina rolled onto her back. “The problem is that why am I bothering with studying for this test if the world’s probably gonna end no matter what we do? If we have limited time, why am I spending it doing this?”

Nico nodded, not moving her gaze from Karolina’s face. “Okay, so if the world is about to end, how _do_ you want to spend her time?”

The blonde thought for a moment. “Well, there’s something that I haven’t told the rest of the group about,” she said.

“And what is it?” Nico prompted. When Karolina didn’t respond right away, Nico reached over and squeezed her hand reassuringly. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”

Karolina knew what she was supposed to do here. She was supposed to say that she liked Nico and then the two would kiss, and start dating, or something like that. But she felt nervous. Yesterday she had only been able to lean against Nico and hold her hand because it was under the pretense of watching the movie. Now, it was just her and Nico. “I can fly,” she blurted out, surprising both Nico and herself.

“What?” Nico asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, uh, I figured that out a while back. It was an accident; I was falling and I stopped myself, and I haven’t tried it since, but yeah. Flying. Pretty cool,” she said.

“Very cool!” Nico said. “Can you show me?”

Karolina grinned. “Yeah, I guess so.” She pushed herself off of the bed and stood up. Slowly, she unclasped her bracelet and tossed it onto her bed. Immediately she felt herself light up, and the room began to glow. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Slowly, as if she was being pulled upwards on a rope, she began to float. She heard Nico laugh in awe and disbelief and she opened her eyes. Nico had gotten off of the bed as well, and Karolina was hovering two or three feet above her.

“I know that after everything’s that’s happened these past few weeks I shouldn’t be surprised by this, but _wow_. This is incredible,” Nico said. “You’re incredible.”

Karolina grinned down at Nico. “Do you want to,” she began, “Do you want to see what it’s like?” Once Nico nodded, Karolina carefully lowered herself back down to the ground. She was standing right in front of Nico. “May I?” she asked quietly. Nico nodded once more, and Karolina wrapped her arms firmly around Nico’s waist, pulling the shorter girl closer to her.

Nico wrapped her arms behind Karolina’s head and let out a deep breath. “Let’s do this,” she said. Karolina laughed and began hovering again, this time taking Nico with her. Nico started laughing with her, looking around in wonder. With their bodies pressed against each other, it felt to Karolina like they were slow dancing, three feet above the ground. Nico looked back at her, the look of wonder still on her face. She could barely contain her smile.

“I didn’t really answer you earlier,” Karolina said after a moment.

“What?” Nico asked.

Karolina looked briefly down at Nico’s lips, and when she looked back up, she saw Nico doing the same thing. “When you asked what I wanted to do if the world’s gonna end. I would wanna do this,” she said. With one last deep breath, she leaned forward. Their faces were already close together but Nico leaned to reach her as their lips crashed in the middle.

Karolina felt like she was about to explode. She was kissing Nico! And more importantly, Nico was kissing her back! After a long, wonderful moment, Karolina pulled away. At some point during the kiss, Karolina had started to slowly spin the two of them in place, and as she gazed into Nico’s eyes, she felt almost dizzy.

Nico laughed softly. “Finally,” she said quietly. “I thought you were never gonna do that.” Karolina laughed and leaned forward again, this time leaning her forehead against Nico’s.

“Can I do it again?” she asked. Without bothering to give an answer, Nico reconnected their lips. Karolina let out a sigh and pulled Nico closer to her. Then, without warning, the door opened. Karolina ignored it for a moment before she heard Gert clearing her throat. Karolina pulled away from Nico and turned, looking sheepishly at Gert.

“Hey,” Nico said, also looking at Gert.

Gert didn’t say anything for a moment. She stood there, in the doorway to Karolina’s room, with her mouth wide open in a smile. Then she nodded once. “Alright. Can I take this as a confirmation that you guys are _finally_ a thing?”

Karolina looked back to Nico. “Yeah,” she said. “I think so.” Nico smiled and pressed a soft kiss against Karolina’s lips.

“Cool, cool, so I’m gonna go, I’ll leave you guys be.” Gert said. “Have fun!” she called as she closed the bedroom door and disappeared.

“So, we’re a thing now?” Nico asked teasingly.

Karolina froze for a moment. “Uh, yeah, if you want to be?”

“Of course I do, you dummy. Now be quiet so I can kiss you again!” Karolina obliged, and leaned in for another kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> come hit me up at klargora.tumblr.com lol  
> also update: just rewatched 1x06 and chase tells nico that karolina can fly so that line in the last scene doesnt make sense anymore! oh well!


End file.
